Getting to clean water: Complex problem, no easy solutions

photo: Friends of the Mississippi River executive director Whitney Clark pours water from the Mississippi River into a tube used to monitor water clarity at Hidden Falls Regional Park in St. Paul on Monday.

If you’re looking for one place that best illustrates the challenges facing Minnesota’s water, paddle a canoe just past Pike Island, near Fort Snelling, where the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers flow together. On a clear day, you can see a line in the water. On one side is the clear, coffee-colored Mississippi. On the other, the milky waters of the Minnesota, laden with sediment and pollutants from the agricultural land it flows through.

"It’s like somebody poured milk in the river," said Whitney Clark, executive director of Friends of the Mississippi River. Minnesota has made strides in recent decades when it comes to improving water quality. But evidence shows there’s still a long way to go. The confluence of the Minnesota River, on left, and the Mississippi in an undated photo. Forty percent of the state’s lakes and streams are polluted, and many aren’t safe for swimming or fishing. Three out of four Minnesotans rely on ground water for drinking. But in many areas, it’s contaminated […]

Full article: Getting to clean water: Complex problem, no easy solutions